Hearts v Motherwell 23/08/2025

[Benson]

16 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Keep the heid folks. It was a very good result. A very tough start to the new campaign and we're unbeaten in 3. Forget about losing 3 late goals; we were always going to concede and Hearts fully deserved their point, as did we. Yes, disappointing to lose 3 but thats football. The big plus for me is that we played Hearts today with over a week of the window to go. It would be far worse to have recorded this result next Saturday. Hopefully, we'll look back on today in 6 months time and say it was a very positive result.  JBA has now seen our defence at its worst and should know by now that he has to strengthen the defence and whats more has over a week to do it. He will already have been looking at defenders and Hearts comeback today should crystallise and galvanise his thoughts. 

All this, and we played some really entertaining football. 

Great  balanced post,defender or defenders incoming.

[Kmcalpin]

14 minutes ago, robsterwood said:

A team should be able to see out a 3 . 0 lead with 25 minutes to go.

But, not with the defence we have. 

[wellon]

4 minutes ago, MJC said:

I certainly didn’t see us being as comfortable against Hearts at Tynecastle as we were for the first hour or so today. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.

In the end though we were holding on for a draw and it really wouldn’t have been much of a surprise if Hearts had nicked it at the death so I don’t think my prediction of a defeat was too far off. 

That's not how predictions work boss, if uou stick uour neck out as often as you do, uou should be getting it right more often than not....bookies don't pay out on nearly things.

[MJC]

3 minutes ago, wellon said:

That's not how predictions work boss, if uou stick uour neck out as often as you do, uou should be getting it right more often than not....bookies don't pay out on nearly things.

Well fortunately I don’t bet money on football so…🤷‍♂️

[Kmcalpin]

A point to mull over folks. Hearts beat both Aberdeen and Dundee United before today scoring 5 goals in the process and conceding 2.  

[Yabba's Turd]

48 minutes ago, Orinoco said:

we scored three, but if we are honest Maswanhise appart from his goal and AP were poor. 

Its disappointing not to get three points from the position we were in, but its still early days, and we did not get beat again. 

 

AP did drag the defence for the 3rd goal so poor with an assist

[robsterwood]

26 minutes ago, wellgirl said:

Game management? What do you think Jens got wrong today? 

Game management of how to see a game out. Time wasting. Less forward passes. Should have changed to be more defensive and reduced chances of letting them back in. You think tactics were right for last 25 mins?

[mio]

Not game related but well done to the guys that created the banner for Dougie Imrie, you are a credit to the club.
He’s a guy we’ve not had much time for and who’s not had much time for us over the years but what happened goes way beyond silly football rivalry. Well done guys 👏 

[twistandshout1983]

1 minute ago, mio said:

Not game related but well done to the guys that created the banner for Dougie Imrie, you are a credit to the club.
He’s a guy we’ve not had much time for and who’s not had much time for us over the years but what happened goes way beyond silly football rivalry. Well done guys 👏 

Absoultely 100 percent 

All rivalry aside it is horrible to hear what has happened . My thoughts are with Dougie Imrie and all the family

[FirParkCornerExile]

35 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

But, not with the defence we have. 

Actually i didn't think the defence played that badly. Ive seen people giving Balmer pelters. He made one mistake in the game and resultant shot the Hearts man got away should have been saved by the keeper and the 3rd one the keeper should have pushed away to the corner flag.  We tired and stopped doing what we had been doing in the last 20 mins but in fairness Hearts stepped it up. Sure you should never lose a 3 goal lead but the pain of that will pass as it feels like a defeat right now but we took the piss out of Hearts for 60 mins the squad build is still ongoing , there is way more to be pleased about that not.

[wellon]

37 minutes ago, MJC said:

Well fortunately I don’t bet money on football so…🤷‍♂️

Good to hear, neither do I tbf.

[wellon]

2 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

Actually i didn't think the defence played that badly. Ive seen people giving Balmer pelters. He made one mistake in the game and resultant shot the Hearts man got away should have been saved by the keeper and the 3rd one the keeper should have pushed away to the corner flag.  We tired and stopped doing what we had been doing in the last 20 mins but in fairness Hearts stepped it up. Sure you should never lose a 3 goal lead but the pain of that will pass as it feels like a defeat right now but we took the piss out of Hearts for 60 mins the squad build is still ongoing , there is way more to be pleased about that not.

I blame him for 2nd goal  too

[FirParkCornerExile]

19 minutes ago, robsterwood said:

Game management of how to see a game out. Time wasting. Less forward passes. Should have changed to be more defensive and reduced chances of letting them back in. You think tactics were right for last 25 mins?

For me we were undone by two bad keeping errors and once we conceded the 2nd Hearts tails were up. I don't think we needed to change tactics, we could still have got a 4th in the 90th minute but over elaborated,   had we got to 80 mins with the two goal lead in tact we'd have been fine.

[FirParkCornerExile]

25 minutes ago, Yabba's Turd said:

AP did drag the defence for the 3rd goal so poor with an assist

AP is slower than a week in the jail and that ultimately will costs him his place

[Onthefringes]

5 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

Actually i didn't think the defence played that badly. Ive seen people giving Balmer pelters. He made one mistake in the game and resultant shot the Hearts man got away should have been saved by the keeper and the 3rd one the keeper should have pushed away to the corner flag.  We tired and stopped doing what we had been doing in the last 20 mins but in fairness Hearts stepped it up. Sure you should never lose a 3 goal lead but the pain of that will pass as it feels like a defeat right now but we took the piss out of Hearts for 60 mins the squad build is still ongoing , there is way more to be pleased about that not.

Fair summation. JBA will learn more from today.

[mio]

12 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

Actually i didn't think the defence played that badly. Ive seen people giving Balmer pelters. He made one mistake in the game and resultant shot the Hearts man got away should have been saved by the keeper and the 3rd one the keeper should have pushed away to the corner flag.  We tired and stopped doing what we had been doing in the last 20 mins but in fairness Hearts stepped it up. Sure you should never lose a 3 goal lead but the pain of that will pass as it feels like a defeat right now but we took the piss out of Hearts for 60 mins the squad build is still ongoing , there is way more to be pleased about that not.

I agree, I thought ODOnnell did well again today and thought McGinn was solid enough, Balmer was better than I expected and Ward did make a couple of excellent saves.

we just tired badly and lost a couple of stupid goals. Really keen to see the reaction next week. I think we deserve a healthy crowd too. Im going to drag a few folk along who don’t normally go.

[robsterwood]

13 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

For me we were undone by two bad keeping errors and once we conceded the 2nd Hearts tails were up. I don't think we needed to change tactics, we could still have got a 4th in the 90th minute but over elaborated,   had we got to 80 mins with the two goal lead in tact we'd have been fine.

You may be right. Mindset changes after 2nd goal. And success we had in first half.  Remember Liverpool clawed back 3 goals against Milan and psychology played part. Milan usually didn't conceded much at that time too. Can happen to big sides  Goalie may be issue though.

[Big Stall]

Obviously gutting to draw in that fashion but positives are how well we played, remain undefeated after home game v rangers & two aways at difficult venues.

Night and day from the last few years & you can taste the positivity.

As others have said we will learn from today & move on.

Far more positives than negatives. MJC's maw is going to have to put extra detergent in the machine tonight when she washes his Y's

[FirParkCornerExile]

11 minutes ago, Big Stall said:

Obviously gutting to draw in that fashion but positives are how well we played, remain undefeated after home game v rangers & two aways at difficult venues.

Night and day from the last few years & you can taste the positivity.

As others have said we will learn from today & move on.

Far more positives than negatives. MJC's maw is going to have to put extra detergent in the machine tonight when she washes his Y's

No matter where we are tonight no one, absolutely no one, can say this Motherwell team isn't worth going to watch. Hopefully that will be reflected in a decent home support for the Kilmarnock game.

[GrahamH]

1 hour ago, wellon said:

I blame him for 2nd goal  too

Looked like a bit of a half-hearted effort at saving the second as he thought it was offside.

[twistandshout1983]

41 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

No matter where we are tonight no one, absolutely no one, can say this Motherwell team isn't worth going to watch. Hopefully that will be reflected in a decent home support for the Kilmarnock game.

Very very true. 

Hopefully a very decent crowd next weekend

[Spiderpig]

42 minutes ago, GrahamH said:

Looked like a bit of a half-hearted effort at saving the second as he thought it was offside.

Just watched the Sportscene highlights Hesrts 2nd goal was onside but it was by millimetres only according to the VAR lines, our defenders right foot playing him on.. 

We failed to mange the last 30 mins and see out the game, bad defenfing for Hearts 1st goal and shocking goal keeping from Ward for goals 2 and 3.

 

[Spit_It_Out]

It's exciting alright however that exciting will soon turn to frustration pretty quickly. For me I love it simply because I was entertained and I can come away from a game like that knowing I am witnessing something special.

But we need to start picking up points hopefully soon with some new faces at the back that have played this way before just to calm things down a bit.

My jury is out on Ward very very shaky to me just makes me nervous every time he has the ball.

Anyway roll on next week!

 

[Kmcalpin]

Just watched the TV highlights too, which didn't do justice to our first half performance.  Yes, Hearts' 2nd goal was a close call, according to VAR lines.  I was however alarmed by the quality of our defending at times. If we want to turn our good play into points this does need addressed in the next 10 days or so.   

[FirParkCornerExile]

16 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

Just watched the Sportscene highlights Hesrts 2nd goal was onside but it was by millimetres only according to the VAR lines, our defenders right foot playing him on.. 

We failed to mange the last 30 mins and see out the game, bad defenfing for Hearts 1st goal and shocking goal keeping from Ward for goals 2 and 3.

 

As soon as the keeper gifted the second goal panic set in and also gave Hearts the impetus they needed but we still assisted them with a gift 3rd. We shot ourselves in the foot but a number of Hearts fans on social media saying that is the best Motherwell team they've seen in years and that they were fortunate which they were.